Facilitating a supply of used items

ABSTRACT

Techniques are described for facilitating a supply of used items on behalf of an entity that desires to acquire such used items, such as a merchant that sells used items to customers. The used items are obtained based on interactions with recipients who receive items that are sold or otherwise provided by one or more merchants (or other suppliers of items), such as by supplying appropriate information and materials to the recipients along with the items. In some situations, when an item is delivered or otherwise supplied to a recipient by a merchant, the merchant also supplies information to the recipient that indicates an offer from a used item acquirer entity to re-acquire the item from the recipient (such as after the recipient has used the item) and shipping materials for use in returning the item to an indicated destination if the recipient accepts the offer.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The following disclosure relates generally to techniques forfacilitating a supply of used items, such as by requesting recipients ofitems sold by a merchant to return the items for use as used items bythe merchant or a third party.

BACKGROUND

A variety of markets exist to supply items to customers or otherrecipients. For example, the World Wide Web (the “Web”) has increasinglybecome a medium that is used to search for, shop for and order items(such as products, services and/or information) that are for purchase,rent, lease, license, trade, evaluation, sampling, subscription to, etc.In many circumstances, a user can visit the Web site of a Web merchant(or a “Web store”) or otherwise interact with an online retailer orelectronic marketplace that provides one or more items, such as to viewinformation about the items, give an instruction to place an order forone or more items, and provide information needed to complete thepurchase (e.g., payment and shipping information). After receiving anorder for one or more items, a Web merchant then fulfills the order byproviding the ordered items to the indicated recipient. Some productitems may be available to be delivered electronically to a recipient(e.g., music downloaded over the Internet), while other product items(e.g., paperback books) may instead be delivered through physicaldistribution channels (e.g., shipment via a governmental postal serviceor private common carrier). Similarly, some service items may beprovided electronically (e.g., providing email service), while othersmay be provided physically (e.g., performing cleaning services at thepurchaser's house). The order fulfillment process typically used by Webmerchants for product items that are to be physically provided sharessimilarities with other item ordering services that ship ordered items(e.g., catalog-based shopping, such as from mail-order companies), suchas to deliver ordered items from one or more physical distribution orfulfillment centers operated by or on behalf of the Web merchant.

While many consumers desire new items, there is also substantial demandfor used items. However, it is often difficult for a merchant or othersupplier of used items to obtain a sufficient supply of used items. Forexample, a merchant or other supplier may face difficulties inidentifying owners of used items who may be willing to sell or otherwiseprovide the used items to the merchant, as well as various costs innegotiating with the owners to obtain the used items. Similarly, even ifowners of used items are interested in selling or otherwise providingtheir used items to others, various difficulties inhibit many suchowners from actually making their used items available, such as due todifficulties in identifying interested buyers, negotiating with suchbuyers, arranging for transport of the items to the buyers, etc.

Thus, it would be beneficial to provide improved techniques forfacilitating the supply of used items from owners of the items to useditem providers or other potential recipients of the used items.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1D illustrate examples of techniques for facilitating a supplyof used items.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system suitable forexecuting an embodiment of a system for facilitating a supply of useditems.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of an Offer Determinerroutine.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a Supplied ItemHandler routine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques are described for facilitating a supply of used items onbehalf of an entity that desires to acquire such used items, such as amerchant that sells used items to customers. The used items are obtainedbased on interactions with recipients who receive items that are sold orotherwise provided by one or more merchants (or other suppliers ofitems), such as by supplying appropriate information and materials tothe recipients along with the items. In particular, at least someembodiments, when an item is delivered or otherwise supplied to arecipient by a merchant, the merchant also supplies information to therecipient that indicates an offer from a used item acquirer entity tore-acquire the item from the recipient, such as after the recipient hasused the item. The information supplied to the recipient may havevarious forms in various embodiments, and may further be accompanied byshipping materials that are supplied to the recipient for use inreturning the item to an indicated destination (e.g., a locationassociated with the used item acquirer) if the recipient accepts theoffer to sell or otherwise provide the item to the used item acquirer.Thus, if the recipient elects to make the received item available toothers as a used item, the recipient may merely accept the indicatedoffer and send the item to the used item acquirer using the suppliedshipping materials.

The techniques for facilitating a supply of used items may be used invarious manners in various embodiments. In some embodiments, a singlemerchant may both initially supply items to recipients and thensubsequently act as a used item acquirer to re-acquire those initiallysupplied items for later use, such as if the merchant sells both new andused items. In other embodiments, a merchant who is initially supplyingitems to recipients may supply re-acquisition offers to the recipientson behalf of one or more used item acquirer entities other than themerchant (e.g., in exchange for a fee from the other entities). Inaddition, the recipient of an item may be the customer who purchased theitem, or instead may be another designated recipient (e.g., if the itemis purchased by the customer as a gift). Furthermore, in someembodiments the re-acquisition offers may be made in only certaincircumstances, such as only for particular types of items (e.g.,disk-based items, such as CDs, DVDs, computer software and games, etc.),particular classes of items (e.g., for initially supplied items that arenew and/or that are already used), particular items (e.g., those with anactual or expected level of demand that is sufficiently high),particular recipients (e.g., those with whom a history of priorinteractions or other information provides a level of confidence thatthey will send the items in good condition and without engaging infraudulent activities), etc. Additional details are provided below withrespect to situations in which the described techniques are used.

The shipping materials that are sent to a recipient along with an itemmay have a variety of forms in various embodiments. For example, theshipping materials may have pre-paid postage and be pre-addressed to apredetermined destination location, thus enabling the recipient toreturn the item by merely placing the item in the shipping materials,sealing the shipping materials, and providing the sealed materials tothe postal service or other delivery service. The shipping materials mayinclude envelopes, mailers, boxes or other containers that are made outof a variety of materials, including paper, paperboard, cardboard,plastic, etc. Additional details related to shipping materials areprovided below.

The offer to a recipient to re-acquire an item may be communicated tothe recipient in various ways in various embodiments. In someembodiments, at least some information about the offer may be specifiedto the recipient by printing or otherwise including an indication of theoffer on the supplied shipping materials rather than on othersupplemental materials, thus preventing such supplemental materials frombeing lost or separated from the shipping materials. The informationabout the offer on the shipping materials and/or other supplementalmaterials may include various offer terms, such as an acquisition price,a time period during which the offer is in effect, a manner ofacceptance of the offer, etc. In addition, in some embodiments an offermay be only partially specified, such as if the specified informationdoes not fully specify one or more offer terms (e.g., by specifying theprice term as a range, as a minimum amount, as a maximum amount, or byindicating that the price will be determined based on conditions at thetime of offer acceptance or of later use of the item). Alternatively,the information that is supplied about the offer (whether on theshipping materials or separately supplied) may include an instruction tothe recipient to access information to obtain additional offer terms andinformation, such as by indicating a Web page with a provided URL(“Uniform Resource Locator”) or by indicating a telephone number to becalled. Additional details related to offers are provided below.

When an initially supplied item is re-acquired from a recipient, there-acquired item may be used in various ways in various embodiments. Forexample, in some embodiments the used item acquirer may re-sell the itemas a used item, while in other embodiments the used item may be employedin other manners (e.g., as a rental item). In addition, while in someembodiments the initially supplied items are re-acquired from therecipients via purchase transactions, a variety of other types ofacquisition transactions may be used in other embodiments, such as torent the items from the recipients, to handle the items on consignmentfrom the recipients, etc. Moreover, in some embodiments the re-acquireditems may ultimately be returned to the original recipient after use bythe used item acquirer, such as if the re-acquired item is used by theused item acquired as a rental item for an agreed-upon time period oruntil other specified conditions are satisfied.

For illustrative purposes, some embodiments are described below in whichthe disclosed techniques are used to facilitate a supply Of varioustypes of used items in various specified ways. However, those skilled inthe art will appreciate that the described inventive techniques may beused in a wide variety of other situations, and that the invention isthus not limited to the specific illustrative details that arediscussed.

FIGS. 1A-1D illustrate examples of techniques for facilitating a supplyof used items, including various examples of shipping materials andoffer information that may be provided to recipients of items. In theexamples illustrated in FIGS. 1A-D, the recipient of the example ordereditem (item XYZ) is an example customer (Customer ABC) of an examplemerchant (Merchant MMM), and Merchant MMM also act as the used itemacquirer entity to attempt to re-acquire item XYZ from Customer ABC.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example of shipping material 100 that may beprovided to a recipient of an item in order to enable the recipient tosupply the item to a used item acquirer. The shipping material 100 inthe illustrated example is part of an envelope, which is this example isincluded in a package to be delivered to Customer ABC from Merchant MMMalong with item XYZ that was purchased from Merchant MMM. In thisexample, the shipping material 100 is imprinted with an offer 102indicating that Merchant MMM is willing to buy the item back fromCustomer ABC for a sum of $5.00 if Customer ABC accepts the offer, whichentails enclosing item XYZ in the provided shipping material 100 andmailing it by Aug. 15, 20ZZ. The shipping material 100 is furtherimprinted with a mailing label 104 that includes a return address 106, adestination address 108, and an indication of pre-paid postage. In thisexample, the return address 106 indicates the address of Customer ABC,and the destination address 108 indicates the address of a shippinglocation utilized by Merchant MMM to receive used items supplied by itscustomers.

The mailing label 104 in this example further includes amachine-readable identifier 110 that may be used for various purposes,such as to identify the contents of the envelope without opening it andto allow the movement of the envelope to be tracked. Themachine-readable identifier 110 in the illustrated example is a bar codethat can be scanned by a bar code reader, such as a bar code specific tothis customer and item, but in other embodiments other alternativetechnologies may be used. For example, in some embodiments a radiofrequency identifier (“RFID”) tag may be included in the envelope andused to track the envelope. Such tracking of the envelope based on amachine-readable identifier or material may be employed as varioustimes, including when the envelope is initially mailed or otherwise sentby a recipient, when the envelope is received at the destinationlocation, and/or when the envelope is at one or more intermediatelocations. In some embodiments, the machine-readable identifier ormaterial may further be used at an intermediate location in order tointercept the envelope and redirect it, such as at a regional Bulk MailCenter (BMC) of the United States Postal Service (USPS). For example, arepresentative of Merchant MMM may physically retrieve the item at suchan intermediate location, change the shipping information for theenvelope to direct it to another destination (e.g., to direct the itemto another customer who has purchased the used item, such as by printinga new shipping label and attaching it to the envelope), and send theitem to the new destination (e.g., without the envelope leaving theintermediate location, such as by using cross-docking techniques to movethe item from an incoming loading dock to an appropriate outgoingloading dock). In such a situation, a representative of the merchant mayperiodically visit each such intermediate location (e.g., every day) toidentify envelopes and other packages received for the merchant that areto be forwarded to other final destinations, and may further in someembodiments carry a portable computing device to assist in the itemprocessing, such as to identify packages of interest, to print newlabels, and/or to determine appropriate final destinations (whetherlocally at the portable computing device and/or by communicating with aremote system to receive such information, such as via a wirelessconnection). Additional details related to re-directing a package froman intermediate shipping location are included in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/987,214, filed Nov.12, 2004 and entitled“Dynamic Determination Of Item Returns During Transit”, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 1B illustrates an alternative example of shipping material 120 thatmay be provided to a recipient of an item in order to enable therecipient to supply the item to a used item acquirer. The shippingmaterial 120 shown in FIG. 1B is similar to that shown in FIG. 1A,including having a mailing label 124 similar to mailing label 104 inFIG. 1A, but in this example the shipping material 120 includes apartially specified offer. In particular, the shipping material 120includes an indication of a offer to Customer ABC from Merchant MMM thatincludes information 122 indicating that Merchant MMM is willing to buythe item back from Customer ABC for between $3.00 and $8.00. Theindicated offer information further includes an example URL 123corresponding to a Web page that the customer may access in order toobtain additional information regarding the terms of the offer, such asan exact price and ship-by date. In this manner, Merchant MMM (or otherused item acquirer) may delay a decision on some offer terms from whenthe shipping materials are initially supplied until a time at which thecustomer contacts Merchant MMM as part of potentially accepting theoffer, such as to base those delayed offer terms on current conditionsthat exist at the time when the customer contacts the merchant. In thisexample, the URL 123 illustrates access information that is specific tothis offer for item XYZ that is being made to Customer ABC, such as maybe generated at a time of preparation of the shipping material 120, sothat Customer 123 may use the access information to obtain additionalinformation regarding the offer (e.g., additional offer terms and/orother types of information about an offer). In other embodiments, theaccess information indicated to a recipient as part of an offer may notbe specific to that recipient or offer, such as if use of the accessinformation by the recipient causes the recipient to be prompted toprovide identifying information so that appropriate offer informationmay be retrieved (or generated) and provided to the recipient.

In other embodiments, a URL or other type of access information (e.g., aphone number to call, an email address or IM address or other type ofmessaging address to which a message is to be sent, etc.) that isprovided to a recipient may be used in other manners to facilitateacceptance of an offer by a recipient. For example, such accessinformation may be provided to a recipient as some or all of theindicated offer information along with an item being delivered, andselection of the access information by the recipient or other use of theaccess information by the recipient may cause a variety of types ofactions to be taken. For example, in some embodiments, selection orother use of access information by a recipient may indicate a bindingacceptance by the recipient of an offer, such as without any furtherinteractions by the recipient (e.g., if the results of such action areindicated to the recipient before the selection or other use of theaccess information occurs) and/or without any further informationprovided to the recipient. In other embodiments, the recipient may beprovided with confirmation of the action to be taken, and/or may beprompted to take one or more additional confirmatory or other steps.Selection or other use of access information may include, for example,clicking a URL or other type of access information, entering a URL intoa Web browser, dialing a telephone number, providing a password to anindicated service, etc.

In addition, in some embodiments, selection or other use of accessinformation by a recipient may automatically initiate other actions,such as to notify a shipping company to retrieve one or more indicateditems from a location of the recipient, as well as to optionallygenerate or prepare appropriate shipping materials and bring them to therecipient location for use with the indicated items. Alternatively,selection or other use of access information by a recipient mayautomatically initiate an indication to a shipping company or othercompany to generate or prepare appropriate shipping materials for one ormore items that are for later use, such as when the recipient brings theitems to a location of the shipping company or other company. If ashipping company (or other entity) obtains the one or more items from arecipient, the shipping company may further be notified by the used itemacquirer of a desired destination for the items, including to send theitems to one or more other recipients. In this way, privacy of the nextrecipient(s) is protected, since the initial recipient may not beprovided with information about a next recipient (or even know that theitems are being provided to another recipient).

In addition, while in some embodiments access information may beprovided to a recipient along with an item being delivered, in otherembodiments such access information may instead be provided to arecipient at other times, including after the item has been initiallysupplied to the recipient. For example, an email or other type ofelectronic notification (e.g., an instant message, telephone call, etc.)may be sent to the recipient with information about an offer to acquireone or more items previously provided to the recipient, such as withaccess information related to the offer. Such a post-acquisition offernotification may be initiated in various ways, such as by a used itemacquirer based on then-current demand for an item (including aparticular offer or request from a new customer for that item). Theaccess information included in such notifications may include one ormore of the previously described types of access information, such as toallow the recipient to easily accept the offer and complete thetransaction by selecting or otherwise using the included accessinformation. Furthermore, in some embodiments such a post-acquisitionoffer notification to a recipient may be preceded by related informationthat is provided to the recipient, such as information provided at thetime that the relevant items for the offer are provided to the recipient(e.g., by providing the information along with the items). Suchpreceding information may indicate that a later actual offer may be madeto the recipient, such as by providing an indication of a potentialoffer that cannot currently be accepted by the recipient but that maylater become an actual offer (e.g., under specified conditions and/or atthe discretion of one or more used item acquirers who may elect to makean actual offer).

FIG. 1C illustrates example information 140 that may be supplied to arecipient to provide additional information regarding an offer topurchase a received item from the recipient. For example, theinformation may be provided via a Web page or other user interfacescreen that the recipient accesses using access information supplied tothe recipient, such as if Customer ABC uses a Web browser to access theURL 123 of FIG. 1B, although in other embodiments such exampleinformation may instead be provided to the recipient along with theitem. In this example, the information 140 includes various offer terms142 that inform Customer ABC varying prices 146 a-146 d that will bepaid for item XYZ depending on when Customer ABC sends the item. Inparticular, the offer terms are presented as a table 144 that includes aship-by date column 144 a and a price column 144 b. For example, if thecustomer sends the item within one week, he/she will be paid $8.00, andif the customer sends the item after one week but within one month,he/she will be paid $6.50.

In addition, the example information 140 includes acceptanceinstructions 148 that describe the manner in which the user may acceptthe indicated offer. In the illustrated example, the acceptanceinstructions direct the customer to enclose the item in the providedpostage-paid envelope (the shipping material 120 described withreference to FIG. 1B) and place it in the mail by one of the ship-bydates 144 a of table 144, although in other embodiments the user mightbe prompted to enter information or otherwise provide an indication viathe user interface to indicate that the offer has been accepted.Furthermore, the example information 140 includes a notice of additionalterms and conditions 150 that may be obtained by following the indicatedhyperlink 152. Such additional terms and conditions may include, forexample, restrictions related to the condition of the item (e.g., thatthe item is in working order or undamaged), payment terms (e.g., thatthe customer will be paid within 30 days of the receipt of the item),allocation of risk terms (e.g., that the user bears the risk of the itembeing damaged or lost in transit), dispute resolution terms (e.g., thatdisputes are subject to binding arbitration), choice of law terms (e.g.,that the laws of a particular state govern the current transaction),etc. In other embodiments, additional terms and conditions may bepresented directly with the provided information 140, instead of on anadditional user interface screen accessed by way of a hyperlink.

FIG. 1D illustrates alternative example information 160 that may besupplied to a recipient to provide additional information regarding anoffer to temporarily acquire a received item from the recipient. Forexample, the information 160 may be provided via a Web page or otheruser interface screen that the recipient accesses, such as based on aURL that is initially supplied to the user along with the item, althoughin other embodiments such example information may instead be provided tothe recipient along with the item. In this example, the offer indicatesthat if the recipient sends the item back to Merchant MMM, the merchantwill rent the item to other customers and provide the recipient withcompensation based on rental revenues. The displayed informationincludes price and duration terms 162 that indicate that for the nextsix months, Merchant MMM will rent item XYZ to other customers and payCustomer ABC $1.00 for each rental. At the end of the six-month term,Merchant MMM will send the item back to the customer. In addition, thedisplayed information includes acceptance instructions 164 that directthe user to accept the offer by enclosing the item in the providedenvelope (such as, for example, the shipping material 120 described withreference to FIG. 1B) and place it in the mail by the indicated date.The displayed information also includes a notice of additional terms andconditions 166 that may be obtained by following hyperlink 168, such aspreviously discussed with respect to FIG. 1C.

While the prior examples have included specific types of shippingmaterials and offers, it will be appreciated that other types of offersand offer information may be supplied to item recipients in other ways,and that other types of shipping materials may be used.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a servercomputing system 200 that is suitable for performing at least some ofthe described techniques, such as by executing an embodiment of aCustomer-Supplied Item Manager system 240. The server computing system200 includes a central processing unit (“CPU”) 210, various input/output(“I/O”) components 205, storage 220, and memory 230, with theillustrated I/O components 205 including a display 206, a networkconnection 208, a computer-readable media drive 207, and other I/Odevices 209 (e.g., keyboards, mice or other pointing devices,microphones, speakers, etc.).

In the illustrated embodiment, the Customer-Supplied Item Manager system240 is executing in memory 230, as are a new item ordering system 231,an optional item rental service system 232, and an optional used itemordering system 233, with these various executing systems generallyreferred to herein as merchant computing systems. In this exampleembodiment, the Customer-Supplied Item Manager system 240 includes anOffer Determiner component 241, a Supplied Item Handler component 242,and a Payment Processor component 243. The systems executing in memory230 may additionally utilize data stored in storage 220, as discussed ingreater detail below, including a new item database 221, a used itemdatabase 222, a customer database 223, a rental database 224, an offerdatabase 225, and an order database 226.

The server computing system 200 and its executing systems maycommunicate with other computing systems via a network 280 (e.g., theInternet, one or more telephone networks, etc.), such as computingsystems at an item supplier 281, a fulfillment center 282, or anintermediate shipping location 284. In addition, the server computingsystem 200 may communicate with computing systems or other devices usedby customers or other recipients of new and/or used items, such asclient devices 283 of new item customers and client devices 285 of useditem customers. The customer client devices 283 and 285 may take variousforms in various embodiments, and may generally include anycommunication devices (e.g., telephones) and other computing devicescapable of making requests to and/or receiving information from themerchant computing systems. In some cases, the customer client devicesmay run interactive console applications (e.g., Web browsers) thatcustomers may utilize to perform various interactions, such as to placeorders, request further information regarding offers, manage accountsettings, etc. In other embodiments, customers may interact with themerchant computing systems by way of a telephone or other communicationdevice (e.g., to interact with an automated keypad-driven or interactivevoice response (“IVR”) system and/or to interact with human operators,such as via a call-center).

In this embodiment, the new item ordering system 231 is operated by amerchant to sell new items of various types to customers, although inother embodiments a single ordering system may sell both new and olditems, or instead multiple ordering systems may be used to sell newitems (e.g., to each sell new items of one or more distinct types). Thenew item ordering system 231 interacts with customers to provide themwith information about items that are for sale and to receive orders fornew items from such customers, with the ordered items to be delivered tothe customers or other designated recipients. The interactions with thecustomers may occur with the customer client devices 283, and mayinclude obtaining information about new items for sale from the new itemdatabase 221, storing and using information about customers in thecustomer database 223, and storing information about customer orders inthe order database 226.

In the illustrated embodiment, the Customer-Supplied Item Manager system240 is executed by the same merchant who operates the new item orderingsystem 231, and the Customer-Supplied Item Manager system 240 interactswith the new item ordering system 231 in order to automaticallyfacilitate a supply of used items for the merchant. In this example, thesupply of used items that are obtained may be used by the merchant tosupport one or more other systems of the merchant, such as the optionalused item ordering system 233 and/or the optional item rental service232, or may instead be supplied by the merchant to one or more otherused item acquirers (not shown). In other embodiments, aCustomer-Supplied Item Manager system may instead operate independentlyof any particular merchant or ordering system, such as if theCustomer-Supplied Item Manager system interacts with ordering and/orfulfillment systems for multiple unrelated merchants, or is operated bya used item acquirer entity distinct from the merchant.

In the illustrated embodiment, when a customer places an order with thenew item ordering system 231 for one or more new items to be deliveredto a designated recipient, the Customer-Supplied Item Manager system isnotified of the order. The Offer Determiner component 241 thendetermines for each of the new items whether to make an offer to therecipient to re-acquire the item from the recipient, with informationabout the decision whether to make an offer being discussed in greaterdetail elsewhere. If one or more offers are determined to be made to therecipient, the Offer Determiner component 241 stores an indication ofthe offer in the offer database 225, and directs the preparation andinclusion of appropriate shipping materials in a package containing theordered item(s). In particular, in the illustrated embodiment themerchant uses one or more fulfillment centers to fulfill orders fromcustomers (by obtaining 290 available items from item suppliers such asmanufacturers or distributors and by packaging and sending ordered itemsto designated recipients), although in other embodiments orders may befulfilled in other manners (e.g., by interacting with drop shippers).Thus, in the illustrated embodiment the inclusion of appropriateshipping materials in a package containing the ordered item(s) occurs atthe fulfillment center at the direction of the Offer Determinercomponent of the Customer-Supplied Item Manager system. When theshipping materials or other information to be sent to a recipient for anitem are created individually for that recipient and item (e.g., toprint offer details specific to that recipient and item on the shippingmaterials or other supplemental materials included in the package withthe item), the creation of that information may be performed at thefulfillment center (at the direction of the Offer Determiner component),or may instead be performed at one or more other locations (e.g., by theserver computing system, such as in electronic form or by using aprinter or other output device) and supplied to the fulfillment center.

If the recipient of the one or more ordered items decides, at some timeafter having received the item, to accept the offer from theCustomer-Supplied Item Manager system to re-acquire the item, therecipient uses the provided shipping materials to send the item to themerchant (e.g., to a fulfillment center of the merchant or to anintermediate shipping location from which the shipping materials mayoptionally be re-directed by the merchant). In some embodiments, theprovided shipping materials are pre-addressed to a destination address,as described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1A-D, although inother embodiments the recipient may instead be directed to send theshipping materials to a specified destination at a time that therecipient is accepting or considering whether to accept the offer (e.g.,via a Web page or other information accessed by the recipient, such asto send the shipping materials directly to another customer ordesignated recipient).

In addition, in some embodiments the recipient may be prompted to, atthe time of offer acceptance or consideration, generate some or all ofthe shipping materials that are to be used to send the item to anindicated location (e.g., to print out a shipping label or a paper-basedenvelope using information provided to the recipient, such as via a Webpage displayed to the recipient after the recipient accesses a URLprovided to the recipient along with the offer information). Such aprinted shipping label material may, for example, then be affixed by thecustomer to shipping materials that were previously sent to therecipient for use in sending the item if the offer is accepted, or insome embodiments to shipping materials that were used to initiallydeliver the item to the recipient. Additional details related todirecting a customer to prepare and use such shipping materials areincluded in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/987,213, filed Nov. 12,2004 and entitled “Dynamic Determination Of Item Returns”, which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Moreover, if someembodiments recipients may be instructed or otherwise prompted togenerate various types of shipping materials other than based on printedpaper from a printer, such as if the recipient has one or more devicescapable of manipulating other types of material (e.g., via machine toolsor manufacturing robots, such as by executing instructions provided tothe tools or robots via the recipient; via a 3-D copier that canconstruct 3-D materials by combining smaller building block materials;etc.).

If the recipient accepts an offer to send an item to the merchant, theCustomer-Supplied Item Manager system is notified, and the Supplied ItemHandler component 242 of the Customer-Supplied Item Manager systemdetermines how the item is to be used. For example, if both the useditem ordering system and item rental service system are available in aparticular embodiment, the Supplied Item Handler component 242 maydetermine that the used item is to be available to one or both of thosesystems, and then notify the selected system(s) that the item isavailable (i.e., available for sale as a used item by the used itemordering system, and/or for rental by the item rental service 233). TheSupplied Item Handler component 242 may be notified of the itemre-acquisition by the merchant in various ways and at various times,including by an indication supplied by the recipient before the item ismailed (e.g., via a Web page or other interactive system of the merchantwith which the recipient interacts), when the item is mailed (e.g.,based on tracking information included on or in the shipping materials,such as if the postal service or private delivery service obtains theinformation and makes it available to the merchant), when the item isreceived at one or more intermediate shipping locations (e.g., based ontracking information included on or in the shipping materials, such asby the entity performing the shipping or operating the intermediateshipping location, or by a representative of the merchant that ispresent at the intermediate location), when the item is received-by themerchant at a fulfillment center or other destination, etc. Moreover, ifthe Supplied Item Handler component 242 is notified of the itemre-acquisition before the item arrives at the merchant's fulfillmentcenter or other destination, the Supplied Item Handler component 242 mayfurther optionally direct the item to a particular destination (e.g., todirect the recipient to send the item to a particular destination if theitem re-acquisition notification occurs before the recipient sends theitem, to direct an operator of an intermediate shipping location ormerchant representative at the intermediate shipping location toredirect the item to a particular destination, etc.). Alternatively, theused item ordering system 233 and/or item rental service 232 may insteadoptionally direct the item to a particular destination under similarcircumstances after being notified by the Supplied Item Handlercomponent 242 of the item re-acquisition, such as to direct the item toanother customer or designated recipient. The Supplied Item Handlercomponent 242 may also store an indication of the used item availabilityin the appropriate database, such as in the used item database 222 orthe rental database 224, or such actions may instead be performed by theused item ordering system 233 or item rental service 232. In addition,the Supplied Item Handler component 242 may notify other components ofthe merchant computing systems that the item has been received. Forexample, the Supplied Item Handler component 242 may notify the PaymentProcessor component 243, such as to initiate the delivery of payment orother compensation (e.g., store credit, award points, etc.) to therecipient that supplied the item under appropriate circumstances (e.g.,after the item is sent, after the item is received, after the receiveditem is examined or verified, after the received item is subsequentlyused in one or more ways, etc.).

As previously noted, the optional item rental service 232 and theoptional used item ordering system 233 are examples of systems that mayuse used items supplied by recipients, such as to make those used itemsavailable for sale or rental to other customers. The used item orderingsystem 233 operates in a manner similar to that of the new item orderingsystem 231 described in more detail above. The item rental service 232provides functionality-to facilitate rental transactions with customers.In the illustrated embodiment, the used item ordering system 233 and theitem rental service 232 are shown as computing systems operated by asingle merchant. However, they may alternatively be operated by thirdparties on remote computing systems. Various other uses of received useditems are also contemplated, including auction services, liquidators,recyclers, exporters, etc.

In addition, in at least some embodiments the Customer-Supplied ItemManager system 240 interacts with the used item ordering system 233 tomake re-acquisition offers to recipients of used items, such as in amanner similar to the interactions with the new item ordering system231. Such interactions with the used item ordering system may occur inaddition to or instead of interactions with the new item orderingsystem. For example, the Customer-Supplied Item Manager system 240 maybe notified of orders for one or more used items from customers of theused item ordering system, determine for each of the used items whetherto make an offer to the recipient to re-acquire the item from therecipient, directs the preparation and inclusion of appropriate shippingmaterials in a package containing the ordered item(s), and assist indetermines how the item is to be used.

It will be appreciated that the illustrated computing systems are merelyillustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the presentinvention. Computing system 200 may be connected to other devices thatare not illustrated, including through one or more networks such as theInternet or via the Web, via cellular data networks (e.g. networks basedon GSM, GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA, UMTS, HSDPA CDMA2000, 1×RTT, 1×EVDO, etc.),and via other wireless data networks (e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX, etc.). Moregenerally, a “client” or “server” computing system or device maycomprise any combination of hardware or software that can interact andperform the described types of functionality, including withoutlimitation desktop or other computers, database servers, network storagedevices and other network devices, PDAs, cellphones, wireless phones,devices with walkie-talkie and other push-to-talk capabilities, pagers,electronic organizers, Internet appliances, television-based systems(e.g., using set-top boxes and/or personal/digital video recorders), andvarious other consumer products that include appropriateinter-communication and computing capabilities. In addition, thefunctionality provided by the illustrated system components may in someembodiments be combined in fewer components or distributed in additionalcomponents. Similarly, in some embodiments the functionality of some ofthe illustrated components may not be provided and/or other additionalfunctionality may be available. Note also that while various items areillustrated as being stored in memory or on storage while being used,these items or portions of them can be transferred between memory andother storage devices for purposes of memory management and/or dataintegrity. Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of thesoftware systems or components may execute in memory on another deviceand communicate with the illustrated computing system via inter-computercommunication. Some or all of the system components or data structures(e.g., portions of a database, such as one or more tables or views orportions thereof) may also be stored (e.g., as software instructions orstructured data) on a computer-readable medium, such as a hard disk, amemory, a computer network or cellular wireless network or othertransmission medium, or a portable media article (e.g., a DVD or flashmemory device) to be read by an appropriate drive or via an appropriateconnection. The system components and data structures may also betransmitted as generated data signals (e.g., by being encoded in acarrier wave or other analog or digital propagated signal) on a varietyof computer-readable transmission mediums, including wireless-based andwired/cable-based mediums, and can take a variety of forms (e.g., aspart of a single or multiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discretedigital packets or frames). Such computer program products may also takeother forms in other embodiments. Accordingly, the present invention maybe practiced with other computer system configurations.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of an Offer Determinerroutine 300. This routine may, for example, be automatically provided byexecution of the Offer Determiner component 241 of FIG. 2. The routinedetermines whether to make offers for items to be delivered torecipients, determines the terms of such offers to be made, facilitatesthe supply of the offers and related materials to the recipients, andprovides requested information regarding existing offers.

The routine begins at step 305, where an indication is received of a neworder for an item to be delivered to a recipient or of a request forinformation about an offer previously made for an already-delivereditem. The routine may receive an indication of a new order from, forexample, the new item ordering system 231 and/or the used item orderingsystem 233 previously described with respect to FIG. 2. The routine mayreceive a request for information regarding offer information from, forexample, a customer client device 283 or 285 previously described withrespect to FIG. 2. In step 310, if a request was received forinformation about a prior offer regarding a delivered item, the routineretrieves information regarding the prior offer for the delivered item.The routine may retrieve such information from, for example, the offerdatabase 225 described with reference to FIG. 2. In step 315, theroutine then determines whether to currently make an offer to purchaseor otherwise acquire the item from the recipient. In some embodiments,the routine will make offers for all items of one or more particulartypes, such as to purchase any music CDs. In other embodiments, thedetermination may be based on one or more other factors, such ascharacteristics of the customer and/or recipient, or information aboutthe specific item. Additional details regarding the decision of whetheror not to make an offer in a particular case is provided elsewhere. Inaddition, the determination of whether to currently make the offer ismade in the illustrated embodiment not only for new item orders, butalso with respect to whether to maintain or revise a previously madeoffer, such as to not currently make an offer if the prior offer hasexpired or if other related conditions have changed.

If the routine determines in step 320 not to make an offer, the routineproceeds to step 355 to provide a response indicating that no offer iscurrently being made (or, if an offer had previously been made, that theoriginal offer has been withdrawn, such as due to expiration of theprior offer and/or changes in current market conditions). If the routinedetermines to make an offer in step 320, the routine proceeds to step325 and determines the terms of the offer. The determination of theterms of the offer may be based on various factors, including thecurrent supply and/or demand for the ordered item, information about therecipient, etc. Such information may be obtained by the routine fromrelated system components, such as the used item ordering system 233,the used item database 222, the customer database 223, etc. In addition,in some cases the routine may determine not to completely specify theterms of the offer for some or all items, such as to provide forflexibility based on later changes in market conditions. If a requestfor information about a previous offer has been received, thedetermination of offer terms may include selecting the prior terms,altering prior terms based on current conditions, and/or newlyspecifying some offer terms that were not initially supplied for apartially specified offer. In step 330, the routine stores the currentterms of the offer, such as in the offer database 225 of FIG. 2.

In step 335, the routine determines whether the indication in step 305was for a new order for an item. If so, the routine proceeds to step 340and initiates the preparation of shipping materials with informationabout the offer, such as by notifying a fulfillment center or othersystem that will generate those shipping. materials. In step 345, theroutine then initiates the inclusion of the prepared shipping materialsin a package containing the item that is to be delivered to therecipient, such as by notifying a fulfillment center that will performthe packaging. for shipment to the recipient. If it is insteaddetermined in step 335 that an indication of a new order was notreceived in step 305, the routine proceeds to step 350 and provides anindication of the current determined offer terms. This step may occurwhen, for example, an incompletely specified offer was previously made,and the recipient is currently requesting an indication of the currentoffer terms (e.g., by requesting a Web page that the routine generates).

After steps 345, 350, or 355, the routine continues to step 395 anddetermines whether to continue. If so, the routine returns to step 305,and if not continues to step 399 and ends.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an example embodiment of a Supplied ItemHandler routine 400. This routine may, for example, be automaticallyprovided by execution of the Supplied Item Handler component 242 of FIG.2. The routine determines how to handle items that are re-acquired basedon offers to item recipients.

The routine begins at step 405, where an indication is received ofactual or upcoming receipt of a used item, such as an indication fromthe destination when the item is received, an indication while the itemis in transit (e.g., from a shipping service when the package containingthe item is received or is in transit, such as at an intermediatelocation), or an indication from a recipient who is about to send theitem. In step 410, the routine optionally determines the service thatshould be given use of the item, such as if multiple such services areavailable, and notifies that service. For example, the routine maydetermine that the received item may be utilized by the item rentalservice 232 and/or the used item ordering system 233 described withreference to FIG. 2, and notify one or both of those services of theitem. In step 415, the routine next stores an indication of the item,such as in the rental database 224 and/or the used item database 222 ofFIG. 2, although in other embodiments the receiving system may insteadstore such indications. In step 420, the routine then optionallydetermines to notify other components, such as the Payment Processorcomponent 243 of FIG. 2 in order to provide payment to the recipient orotherwise satisfy any terms of the offer. In step 495, the routinedetermines whether to continue. If so, the routine returns to step 405,and if not continues to step 499 and ends.

As previously noted, offers may be determined and communicated to itemrecipients in various ways in various embodiments. For example, thedecision whether to make an offer to acquire a given item from arecipient may be determined in various ways. In some embodiments, thedecision whether to make an offer may be based at least in part onactual or predicted market demand and/or supply for a particular item.For example, some embodiments may make offers only for items that havean actual or expected sales volume in excess of a predeterminedthreshold, or that exceeds an actual or expected supply by at least apredetermined threshold. Alternatively, in some embodiments queues mayexist for some items that indicate customers who are waiting for a usedcopy of the item to become available, and the decision as to whether tomake an offer and/or what price is offered may be based on whether sucha queue exists for a current item under consideration (e.g., to make anoffer only if at least one customer has made a commitment to purchase orindicated an interest in the item, and/or to offer a price to therecipient that is based on a price offered by one or more othercustomers or to which such other customer(s) have committed to make apurchase). In addition, the decision whether to make an offer to acquirea given item from a recipient may be based on the properties of the itemitself. For example, in some embodiments offers may be made for allitems of a particular type or category, such as based on the medium ofthe item (e.g., tape, compact disk, digital video/versatile disk(“DVD”), printed matter, etc.) and/or the subject matter of the item(e.g., whether the content is fiction or non-fiction, is of a particulargenre, is instructional or entertainment, is music or film, is adocumentary, etc.). Furthermore, in some embodiments offers may be madebased at least in part on the price of the item, such as to not makeoffers to acquire items with prices below a pre-determined thresholdsince the potential revenue stream from re-selling or renting the itemsmay not be sufficiently substantial. Other embodiments may make considera variety of other factors when determining whether to make an offer,including, but not limited to, weight, size, reliability, age,manufacturer, distributor, etc. Some embodiments may base a decisionwhether to make an offer to acquire a given item on properties of therecipient and/or the customer that ordered the item. For example, toreduce the incidence of fraud, some embodiments may elect to only makeoffers to recipients that are also customers, or to recipients aboutwhich a minimum threshold of information is known (e.g., credit cardnumber, bank account number, social security number, etc.). In addition,some embodiments may track the prior actions of a given customer orrecipient and use such information when deciding whether to make anoffer. For example, some embodiments may elect not to make offers to arecipient who has in the past provided non-conforming (e.g., damaged,inoperative, misidentified, etc.) items. Alternatively, some embodimentsmay prefer to make offers to recipients who have in the past accepted atleast a certain number or percentage of offers, or recipients who haveused proceeds from the offers to acquire other items from the merchantor other used item acquirer entity.

In some embodiments, the price term of an offer to purchase an item froma recipient may be determined in various ways. For example, the priceterm may be determined by a pre-determined percentage (e.g., 15%) of theretail or wholesale price of the item when new or used. In otherembodiments, the price term may be determined by reference to the actualor predicted market for a particular item. For example, a newly releasedDVD of a feature film may be predicted to be a top seller, based on itsperformance in the theaters, and a higher price may be offered for itthan for other feature film DVDs. Alternatively, the merchant may know(e.g., because the merchant operates a used item ordering service) thata particular DVD sells quickly at a relatively high price, and thereforeoffer a higher price for it than for other feature film DVDs. In otherembodiments, the price term may be linked to the current price asdetermined by an auction (e.g., English auction, Dutch auction, reverseauction, etc.) for the same or similar items. In addition, the priceterm may be based in whole or in part on characteristics of therecipient and/or the customer that ordered the item. For example, someembodiments may offer recipients who have not previously accepted offershigher prices in order to encourage such recipients to become suppliers,or offer lower prices to recipients if they are expected to have ahigher likelihood of fraud or a greater likelihood to accept the offer.In addition, the price term need not be fixed at the time of the offer,such as if it is instead determined at the later time of acceptance orlater time of resale (or other disposition) after the item isre-acquired. For example, a given offer may indicate that the price paidto the supplier will be a fixed percentage (e.g., 70%) of the price atwhich the merchant can resell the item. In other embodiments, a givenoffer may indicate that the price paid to the supplier will be the priceat which the merchant can resell the item minus a pre-determinedcommission (e.g., $3.00). Alternatively, an offer price may be basedupon a mutually agreed-upon, third-party source of prices on the date ofshipment, receipt, resale, etc.

In some embodiments, the length of time that an offer is held open maybe determined in various ways. Some embodiments may take into accounthistorical patterns of market activity (e.g., elasticity and/orstability of demand for a particular item) to determine offer duration.In addition, some embodiments may consider predicted market conditionswhen determining offer duration. For example, if demand for a particularused item is predicted to peak (e.g., because of the arrival of theholiday shopping season), some embodiments may elect to time theduration (as well as possibly the number of offers made) to helpguarantee a robust supply of used items to meet the predicted demand.

Offers may also be communicated to recipients in various ways in variousembodiments. As previously described, in some embodiments all or part ofthe offer may be directly printed on or otherwise placed (e.g., via alabel) on shipping materials enclosed along with the item when it ispackaged for shipment. In other embodiments, the offer may be presentedseparately from the shipping materials, such as on a loose-leaf noticethat is enclosed with the packaged item. Also, while the offer may insome embodiments be communicated to the recipient in a manner that issubstantially contemporaneous with the delivery or other providing ofone or more items corresponding to the offer (whether in a manner thatis physically together with the items, or instead using an alternativecommunication mechanism such as email, instant messaging, telephone,display on an accessed Web page, etc. that takes place at a time near tothe time of the providing of the items), the offer may in otherembodiments be communicated to the recipient substantially prior orsubsequent to the delivery of the item. For example, shipping materialsmay be shipped separately to the recipient, and an offer may similarlybe separately supplied in a variety of ways (e.g., electronically, suchas via email and/or text message, on a paper letter, via phone, via fax,etc.).

Various mechanisms may also be used to supply items to recipients and toobtain items from recipients. For example, while the describedtechniques are used in some embodiments with items that are shipped orotherwise delivered to recipients, item re-acquisition offers and/orcorresponding shipping materials may also be supplied in someembodiments to recipients who physically retrieve the items (e.g., bypurchasing them from a brick-and-mortar retailer, or retrieving theitems from a distribution location), such as by providing the offersand/or shipping materials to such recipients along with the items.Similarly, while the described techniques are used in some embodimentsto enable recipients to ship or otherwise have items be delivered to aused item acquirer entity, in other embodiments the recipients mayinstead physically take the items to a specified location, such as ifthey are provided offer information but not corresponding shippingmaterials. For example, the specified locations may be indicated to therecipients as part of the information initially supplied to therecipients along with the items, or may instead be dynamically indicatedto the recipients at the time of offer consideration or acceptance(e.g., via user-selectable access information provided to therecipients). Items being sent from recipients to a used item acquirerentity may also be routed through an intermediate shipping location fromwhich the items are tracked (e.g., by scanning a bar code on theshipping materials or identifying an RFID tag), and potentiallyredirected to a new address (e.g., by applying a new address label)without ever being unpackaged, such as to be sent to a new recipient. Inat least some such embodiments, additional steps may be taken to helpensure that the package contains appropriate items, such as byperforming an automated weight check or otherwise conducting anexamination or inspection that may or may not involve opening thepackage. Also, as previously noted, in some embodiments a recipient ofan item that accepts a re-acquisition offer may be directed to ship theitem directly to another recipient, such as by obtaining the address forthe other recipient from a Web page or other information resource, or bythe used item acquirer entity supplying shipping materials to theinitial recipient at the time of acceptance that are pre-addressed tothe other recipient.

In some embodiments, recipients who accept item re-acquisition offersmay be compensated in various ways, such as with one or more sums ofmoney using a variety of payment mechanisms (e.g., electronic fundstransfer, credit card transaction, check, a stored value card, etc.). Inother cases, a recipient who supplies an item will be compensated inother ways, including receiving store credit with one or more merchants,reward points redeemable at one or more merchants, etc.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that in some embodimentsthe functionality provided by the routines discussed above may beprovided in alternative ways, such as being split among more routines orconsolidated into fewer routines. Similarly, in some embodimentsillustrated routines may provide more or less functionality than isdescribed, such as when other illustrated routines instead lack orinclude such functionality respectively, or when the amount offunctionality that is provided is altered. In addition, while variousoperations may be illustrated as being performed in a particular manner(e.g., in serial or in parallel) and/or in a particular order, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that in other embodiments theoperations may be performed in other orders and in other manners. Thoseskilled in the art will also appreciate that the data structuresdiscussed above may be structured in different manners, such as byhaving a single data structure split into multiple data structures or byhaving multiple data structures consolidated into a single datastructure. Similarly, in some embodiments illustrated data structuresmay store more or less information than is described, such as when otherillustrated data structures instead lack or include such informationrespectively, or when the amount or types of information that is storedis altered.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specificembodiments have been described herein for purposes of illustration,various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit andscope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limited exceptas by the appended claims and the elements recited therein. In addition,while certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certainclaim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of theinvention in any available claim form. For example, while only someaspects of the invention may currently be recited as being embodied in acomputer-readable medium, other aspects may likewise be so embodied.

1-32. (canceled)
 33. A non-transitory computer-readable medium havingstored contents that configure a computing device of an item provider toat least: receive an indication of an item previously obtained by arecipient from the item provider; determine, by the configured computingdevice of the item provider, to make an offer for re-acquisition of theitem to the recipient, wherein the determining includes identifyingmultiple alternative payment amounts for the item that are eachassociated with one or more criteria corresponding to the item; andinitiate providing the offer for re-acquisition of the item to therecipient, to enable the re-acquisition by the item provider of the itemfrom the recipient in exchange for one of the multiple alternativepayment amounts whose associated one or more criteria are satisfied forthe re-acquisition.
 34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 33 wherein the initiating providing of the offer forre-acquisition of the item to the recipient includes delivering to therecipient an indication of the offer along with associated shippingmaterials for use by the recipient with the item if the recipientaccepts the offer. 35-61. (canceled)
 62. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 33 wherein the stored contents includeinstructions that, when executed, further configure the computing deviceto at least: receive an indication of acceptance by the recipient of theoffer; and after receiving the indication of acceptance, make the itemavailable to customers of the item provider that are distinct from therecipient.
 63. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33wherein the determining to make the offer is based at least in part ondetermining that current demand exists at the item provider for theitem.
 64. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33wherein the determining to make the offer is based at least in part ondetermining a current supply at the item provider of the item.
 65. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33 wherein thedetermining to make the offer is based at least in part on determiningthat the item is of a specified item types.
 66. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 33 wherein the determining to make theoffer is based at least in part on determining that the item is in agroup of specified items for which re-acquisition offers will be made.67. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33 wherein thedetermining to make the offer is based at least in part on determiningthat associated information for the recipient qualifies the recipient toreceive re-acquisition offers. 68-85. (canceled)
 86. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by one or moreconfigured computing devices of an item provider, an indication of anitem previously obtained by a recipient from the item provider;determining, by the one or more configured computing devices, an offerfor re-acquisition of the item for the recipient, wherein thedetermining includes identifying multiple alternative payment amountsfor the item that are each associated with one or more criteriacorresponding to the item; and initiating, by the one or more configuredcomputing devices, providing the offer for re-acquisition of the item tothe recipient, to enable the re-acquisition by the item provider of theitem from the recipient in exchange for at least one of the multiplealternative payment amounts whose associated one or more criteria aresatisfied for the re-acquisition.
 87. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 86 further comprising: receiving an indication of acceptance bythe recipient of the offer; and making the item available via a networksite of the item provider to customers of the item provider that aredistinct from the recipient.
 88. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 86 further comprising determining to make the offer to therecipient based at least in part on at least one of current demand atthe item provider for the item or a current supply at the item providerof the item.
 89. The computer-implemented method of claim 86 furthercomprising determining to make the offer to the recipient based on therecipient being determined to qualify to receive re-acquisition offersand on the item being determined to be qualified for re-acquisitionoffers.
 90. A system comprising: a memory configured to storecomputer-executable instructions; and one or more processors incommunication with the memory, wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to at least:receive an indication of an item previously obtained by a recipient froman item provider; determine an offer for re-acquisition of the item tobe indicated to the recipient, the offer indicating multiple alternativepayment amounts for the item that are each associated with one or morecriteria corresponding to the item; and initiate providing the offer forre-acquisition of the item to the recipient, to enable there-acquisition by the item provider of the item from the recipient inexchange for at least one of the multiple alternative payment amountswhose associated one or more criteria are satisfied for there-acquisition.
 91. The system of claim 90 wherein the one or moreprocessors are further configured by the executed computer-executableinstructions to: receive an indication of acceptance by the recipient ofthe offer; and make the item available via a network site of the itemprovider to customers of the item provider that are distinct from therecipient.
 92. The system of claim 90 wherein the one or more processorsare further configured by the executed computer-executable instructionsto determine one or more terms for the re-acquisition, and wherein theinitiating providing of the offer includes indicating to the recipientthe one or more terms and the multiple alternative payment amounts andthe one or more associated criteria for each of the multiple alternativepayment amounts.
 93. The system of claim 90 wherein the one or moreprocessors are further configured by the executed computer-executableinstructions to determine to make the offer to the recipient based atleast in part on demand at the item provider for the item.
 94. Thesystem of claim 90 wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured by the executed computer-executable instructions to determineto make the offer to the recipient based at least in part on a supply atthe item provider of the item.
 95. The system of claim 90 wherein theone or more processors are further configured by the executedcomputer-executable instructions to determine to make the offer to therecipient based at least in part on the recipient being determined toqualify to receive re-acquisition offers.
 96. The system of claim 90wherein the one or more processors are further configured by theexecuted computer-executable instructions to determine to make the offerto the recipient based at least in part on the item being determined tobe qualified for re-acquisition offers.
 97. The system of claim 90wherein the determining of the offer includes determining the multiplealternative payment amounts for the item, and wherein the one or morecriteria associated with each of the multiple alternative paymentamounts are based at least in part on multiple possible conditions ofthe item.
 98. The system of claim 90 wherein the determining of theoffer includes determining the multiple alternative payment amounts forthe item, and wherein the one or more criteria associated with each ofthe multiple alternative payment amounts are based at least in part onmultiple possible times at which the re-acquisition of the item by theitem provider occurs.
 99. The system of claim 90 wherein the determiningof the offer includes determining the multiple alternative paymentamounts for the item based at least in part on an item type of the item.